Although evening reservations are almost unavailable to non-regulars, there are some exceptions.
Oktoberfest reservations are available to first-timers in vast numbers - for lunchtime, weekdays. Reservations for those time slots may be valuable for very large groups but aren't recommendable for most visitors. Evening and weekend reservations, which are actually valuable, are, in general, only available to regulars and are being renewed each year.
But luckily, there are exceptions to that rule. Each year, many of our reservation alarm subscribers score very valuable reservations for evenings and weekends. In this article, we want to show what you can expect based from each tent based on our experience from past years.
As it's, in most tents, still unlikely to get an evening reservation, don't forget about our Facebook group, where many seats are offered each year, especially on short notice.
Armbrustschützenzelt
The Armbrustschützenzelt is one of the most newbie-friendly tents of the Oktoberfest. In 2023, they publicly offered reservations for all evenings. Some of those, however, required a written justification of your reservation request. Also, there offer last-minute reservations for Saturday evenings. Those were, however, gone in a couple of minutes each time they were released.
In 2024 the reservation form opened including slots for all weekend afternoons, except for the first Saturday. On April 2nd even all evenings except for the first two Saturdays and the first Friday were released. In the second half of July, all weekends and the evenings of Sunday to Thursday of the first week followed. In early August and mid-September, balcony tables for almost all evenings were released.
Augustiner-Festhalle
The Augustiner tent is totally different. Reservations are almost all renewed by regulars over and over again. Before 2019, even lunchtime reservations haven't been publicly available for many years in a row. However, the tent offered left-over reservations only a couple of weeks before the Oktoberfest in their reservation office in the city. In 2023, however, some evening reservations became regularly available in the reservation form.
Bräurosl
In 2023, Bräurosl offered all reservation slots except for Friday and Saturday nights in its reservation form. The evenings were gone within minutes, however weekend afternoon slots were again released later. On top of that, left-over reservations were released on August 27. 2024 only the last two Sundays and the holiday were available at the beginning.
Fischer-Vroni
Contrary to our experience from previous years, when only some Sunday afternoons could be reserved by non-regulars, In 2023, a couple of tables for almost all evenings became available in July.
Last-minute reservations were available in two-hour shifts for groups as small as two people.
Käfer Wiesnschänke
Although the Wiesnschänke isn't even full on Saturday afternoons, only the most unattractive reservation slots are available in the reservation form. Well, its host probably has too many good friends...
Hacker-Festzelt
Being one of the most popular tents, even lunchtime reservations are usually almost all gone by the beginning of the Oktoberfest. Nonetheless, after a two-year hiatus, some interesting reservation slots showed up in the reservation form in 2024. Right with the beginning of the reservation phase, all weekend days, excluding the first Saturday were available. Sunday inlcuding evenings.
Hofbräu-Festzelt
In 2022, the tent started the reservation phase including Sunday and Monday night shifts, in 2023, even evening reservations for a whopping four different days were publicly offered. In 2024, they at least included the first two Sundays, with evenings, for the reservation start at March 14.
Löwenbräu-Festzelt
Only reservations for lunchtime from Monday through Thursday are offered publicly. There's no information about the availability of valuable time slots.
Marstall-Festzelt
In 2023, the tent offered very interesting evening slots for a remarkably long time. However, you were also asked to preorder menus, champagne, and water as part of the reservation process. Of course, only for logistic reasons... Short three-hour afternoon reservations are easy to obtain on any day. In late August, another batch of reservations for almost all evenings was released.
Ochsenbraterei
The oxen grill has the most extensive offering for last-minute reservations. Each day, they would release evening reservations. The availability of regular reservations is announced publicly. Starting in August, evening reservations were released in the reservation form in several rounds – for all days. It looks like the tent is looking for a new audience to go with its repositioning as a disco tent. In 2024, several evenings were publicly offered in July, August, and September. Unfortunately, the tent gained the reputation of rejecting a significant share of the requests.
Schottenhamel-Festhalle
Modestly interesting three-hour (fore-) noon and afternoon shifts are often even available for weekends. The Schottenhamel tent is usually one of the first to accept reservation requests. In 2023, some regular evening reservations were available, too, which is very rare.
Schützenfestzelt
The Schützenzelt is typically not publicly offering reservations. Just very uninteresting lunchtime slots from Monday through Wednesday can be expected to be available.
Weinzelt
The wine tent is usually the only one that offers evening reservations long before the beginning of the Oktoberfest and not only leftovers. At the beginning of the reservation phase, you can typically expect Sunday nights and other weekend afternoons to be available.
Winzerer Fähndl (Paulaner Festzelt)
In 2022 and 2023, the tent offered very attractive reservation times over a long period of time. Of our test reservations in both years, only those requests that included a menu order were confirmed. This practice was once again expressly prohibited during the 2023 reservation phase. 2024 started with Sunday afternoons. This was followed at the beginning of August by Saturday afternoons and most evenings. In late August, some evening tables were again released.
Oide Wiesn
The four tents of the Oide Wiesn typically offer reservations for any time slot even to first-timers.